Transportation

Rental Cars

St. John is a rental car dependent island and a vehicle with 4WD is the best option. This is why you will see Jeeps EVERYWHERE! Rental cars book up 6+ months in advance, so it is important to reserve your car as soon as possible.

While it is possible to get away without having a rental car in Cruz Bay, you will absolutely need one when staying in Coral Bay. Taxis do not regularly run to Coral Bay and must be booked in advance if a ride is needed. There is no Uber or Lyft. Just ask us for taxi numbers.

We HIGHLY recommend renting a car on St. John over St. Thomas. This is probably one of the most important pieces of advice we can provide. The car barge runs on a very limited schedule, while the passenger ferry runs much more often and far later into the evening. Guests who land after 3:00pm run the very real risk of missing the last car barge and spending their first night on St. Thomas. The car barge schedule is subject to a lot of change on a daily basis as barges can have mechanical issues and be down from day to day, leaving only 1 or 2 barges running and causing wait times of an hour or more. We have had many years of experience welcoming guests to St. John and unfortunately have seen this happen more often than not. If you are a first time visitor to St. John, it is even more important to consider renting on St. John.

The public taxi drivers and ferry workers load and unload your luggage for you for your journey from the airport to the ferry. If you prefer, we can assist you in setting up a private taxi and even a private water taxi. Just email our Concierge at activities@islandhoststj.com.

Upon arrival to Cruz Bay, we recommend one person from your group picks up the rental car and returns to the group to load everything up. Rental car agencies are within walking distance to the Cruz Bay dock and many agencies offer pick-up/drop-off.

If you land prior to 3:00pm and decide to rent on St. Thomas, please contact our office for recommended rental agencies. We highly recommend avoiding the agencies located at the airport such as Hertz and Budget due to poor customer experience. A look at their Google reviews is very telling.

car barge

If you are renting your vehicle on St. Thomas, you will be taking the car barge out of the Red Hook terminal over to Cruz Bay, St. John. Multiple barge companies operate out of the Red Hook terminal. For this reason, we DO NOT recommend purchasing a car barge ticket ahead of time as you may not make the specific time or the specific company you purchased one for and will need to buy another ticket for the barge you do end up catching. We recommend heading straight to the barge after you pick up your car. You will get in line with the other cars and board whatever barge pulls up next. If the line is particularly long, you may not catch the first barge that pulls up and will take the next one.

Please note, barge tickets are purchased once you are on board CASH ONLY. A one-way ticket is $50. We understand that Love City Car Ferries has recently rolled out an app where you can purchase tickets using a credit card, however with the way things tend to go on the island, it's best practice to have cash with you.